Sewing machine attachment



Nov. 13, 1956 c. G. BAEHR ETAL 9 3 SEWING MACHINE ATTACHMENT Filed June9, 1949 .5 Sheets-Sheet 1 I III ATTOR N EY5 1956 c. G. BAEHR ETAL2,770,206

SEWING MACHINE ATTACHMENT Filed June 9, 1949 3 Sheet s-Sheet 2 ATTOR NEYE Nov. 13, 1956 c. G. BAEHR ETAL 2,770,205

SEWING MACHINE ATTACHMENT Filed June 9, 1949 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 ATTORNEYSUnited States Patent SEWING MACHINE ATTACHNIENT Carl G. Baehr, WestHaven, and John Connors, Hamden,

Conn., assignors to The Greist Manufacturing Company, New Haven, Conn.,a corporation of Connecticut Application June 9, 1949, Serial No. 97,948

1 Claim. (Cl. 112235) This invention relates to a sewing machineattachment and more particularly to an attachment designed to performdecorative or zig-zag stitching operations wherein the material is movedlaterally and one or more stitches made in the material after suchmovements. In many attachments for making zig-zag stitching operations,the cloth is moved laterally each time a stitch is made in the material,but it is desirable in making many decorative patterns to be able tomake a number of stitches be tween lateral movements of the cloth. Forexample, the material may be moved laterally after every alternatestitch or after every third, fourth, or fifth stitch and theconstruction herein illustrated may be readily adjusted to perform anyone of a number of decorative stitches.

It is also desirable that the device be easily adjustable so that thelateral movement imparted to the material may be varied over arelatively wide range so that, with the same attachment, a very fine orvery coarse zig-zag stitch may be efiected and also any stitch inbetween these two extremes.

One object of the present invention is to provide a sewing machineattachment with which a wide variety of decorative stitches may be made.

Another object of the invention is to provide a zig-zag or decorativestitch sewing machine attachment which willbe relatively simple inconstruction and which will at the same time be capable of a relativelywide range of adjustment for various types of work.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a sewing machineattachment of the character described which may be adjusted to make azig-zag stitch between each of the stitching operations of the sewingmachine or to make a zig-zag stitch only between a plurality ofstitching operations, as desired.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a sewing machineattachment for decorative stitching which may be relatively economicalto manufacture and of simple construction but which will at the sametime be efficient in operation and capable of use to effect a widevariety of stitching operations.

To these and other ends the invention consists in the novel features andcombinations of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. l is a side elevational view of a sewing-machine attachmentembodying our invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the attachment with the coverremoved, some parts being shown in section;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the attachment with the cover removed;

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view thereof;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on line 55 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the swivel presser foot;

Fig. 7 is an elevational view of the ratchet wheel employed to drive thecam from the fork arm of the attachment; and

Figs. 8, 9, 10 and ,11 are side elevational views of masking wheels orcams which may be employed interchangeably upon the attachment to effectvarious types of decorative stitching.

To illustrate a preferred embodiment of our invention, we have shown asewing machine attachment comprising a frame member of substantiallyU-shaped form, this member comprising a base 10 and spaced upstandingside members 11 and 12. Secured between these side members adjacenttheir front ends is an adapter 13 provided with a recess 14 adapted toreceive the presser bar of the sewing machine with which the attachmentis to be used. A set screw 16 is threaded in the adapter 13 to engagethe presser bar and hold the attachment securely in place.

A shaft 17 is provided with a reduced end 18 rotatably mounted in theframe member 11, while the body of the shaft is positioned rotatably inan opening in the opposite frame member 12; A hub 19 is secured to theshaft by the set screw 20 and a spring washer 21, disposed between thishub and the frame member 11, urges the hub toward the member 12 and thusholds the shaft and hub in positionin the frame.

The hub 19 is provided with reduced end portions 22 separated from themain portion of the hub by shoulders 23 and against these shoulders camplates 24 are staked securely upon the hub. These cam members aresubstantially circular in form and the metal thereof is displacedinwardly and outwardly alternately along the periphery of each so as tobe of sinuous shape and thus form between the cam plates a sinuous camtrack.

Referring particularly to Fig. 2, the base 10 of the frame member isprovided with a longitudinally extending slot 26 within which isslidably mounted a pivot pin 27 upon which is pivoted a lever 28disposed below the base of the frame. The lever 28 is also provided witha longitudinal slot 29 within which the pivot pin 27 lies so that thelatter may be adjusted relatively to the base 10 and lever 28 so as toadjust the pivotal connection of the latter with the former as will behereinafter explained.

As shown more particularly in Figs. 2 and 5, a pin 30 is secured to thelever 28 and upon this pin is mounted a roller 31 which extends upwardlyinto the cam track formed by the cam members 24. The pin 30 extendsupwardly through a transversely elongated slot 32 in the base 10 and itwill be apparent that as the cam is rotated the pin 30 and, therefore,the rear end of the lever 28 will be oscillated transversely of theframe, this movement being permitted by the slot 32. The pivotalmovement of the lever 28 takes place about the pin 27 and as the rangeof movement of the rear end of the le ver is determined by the throw ofthe roller 31 by the cam 24-the scope of the lateral movement of theforward end of the lever may be varied by adjustment of the pivot pin 27in the slots 26 and 29 so that the fulcrum of the lever will be adjustedrelatively to the length thereof.

To this end an adjusting slide 33 is mounted below the base and issecured at its forward end to the pin 27. Adjacent its rear end, it isprovided with a slot 34 which slidably receives a pin 35 secured to thebase 10, the slide being spaced from the base by a spacing washer 36.The rear end of the slide is turned upwardly at 37 so that it may begrasped by the fingers and moved forwardly or rearwardly so as to adjustthe position of the pivot pin and, therefore, vary the throw of theforward end of the lever 28. The slide 33 is, as shown in Fig. 5, ofsubstantially U-shaped form in cross section and one of the upstandingsides 38 is provided with a slot 39 to receive a pin 40 secured to theframe member 11. A nut 41 is threadedly received on this pin so as toclamp the slide in any adjusted position. At the upper edge of the sidemember 38 of the slide 33 'is provided an indicating marker 42 whichmaycooperate with indicia 43 provided on the cover 44 of the attachmentto indicate the position of the slide and, --ther.efore, indicate theamount of throw which will be imparted to the forward end of the lever'23 by the rotation of the cam.

The forward end of the lever 28 is provided with a downwardly steppedportion 46 provided with laterally extending trunnions 47 upon which ispivoted a presser foot 48 having a laterally elongated needle opening 49('Fig. 6). As shown, this presser foot is provided with an upstandinglug "'0 at each side edge, each lug being provided with an upwardlyopening recess 51 to receive one of the trunnions 47. A cord guide 52 isprovided with a base portion "53 riveted to the upper surface of thepresser foot and, at each side edge, this base member is provided withan upwardly spaced and forwardly extending finger 54 which stands overthe corresponding recess 51. As the cord guide is made of relativelylight spring metal, the members 54 may be sprung upwardly to permit theinsertion of the trunnions 47 in the recesses 51 and thus convenientlyattach the presser foot to the forward portion 26 of the lever 28 forpivotal movement. As shown at 56 in Fig. 4, the presser foot may beroughened on its lower surface so as to properly grip the material withwhich the attachment is used.

A fork arm 69, of more or less usual form and which is adapted to beconnected with the needle bar of a sewing machine in the usual way, isrockably mounted upon an extended end 61 of the shaft 17. Adjacent thefork arm, a ratchet wheel 62 is secured to the shaft part 61, so thatthe rotation of this ratchet wheel will effect rotation of the shaft 17and the operating cam carried thereby. A pawl member 63 is pivoted at 64to the fork arm 60, this pawl member being urged by a spring 66 intoengagement with the teeth of the ratchet wheel 62. It will be apparent,therefore, to those skilled in the art that upon reciprocation of theneedle bar the fork arm 60 will be rocked about the shaft portion 61 andas the pawl engages the teethof the ratchet wheel 62 to move the latterin a clockwise direction, as shown in Fig. 2, the operating cam will berotated in a step-by-step manner in the same direction.

It will be apparent that with the above construction the operating camwill be advanced rotatably but one step each time the needle bar isreciprocated and, therefore, a plain zig-zag stitch would be effected.That is, the material would be moved laterally each time a stitch iseffected by the needle bar. It is, however, desirable in effectingdecorative stitching that the needle bar make a number of reciprocationsbetween successive lateral movements of the material, so that varioustypes of decorative stitching may be effected. For example, it may bedesired that the needle bar effect 2, 3, 4 or 6 stitches betweensuccessive lateral movements of the material or between successivezig-zag stitches, and it may in some cases also be desirable that thenumber of stitches effected by the needle bar upon one side of a medianline through the stitching be different from that upon the other side.That is, it may be desired to make four stitches, for example, at oneside of each zig-zag stitch and two stitches at the other side of eachzig-zag stitch. According to the present invention, means are providedto effect these results.

To this end, the shaft 17 is provided with a further reduced portion 68beyond the part 61 and upon the portion 68 may be rotatably mounted amasking cam 69, the latter being held in place by a removable nut 70threaded on to the end portion 71 of the shaft 17. As shown in Fig. 2,this masking cam or wheel 69 has an outside diameter slightly greaterthan that of the ratchet wheel 62 and the periphery of the masking cam69 is provided with relatively shallow notches 72 'and'relatively deepnotches 73. The shallow notches 72 extend inwardly only to the outerends of the teeth of the ratchet wheel 62, while the deep notches 73extend inwardly to the bottom of the notches between the teeth of theratchet wheel .62.

The pawl 63 carried by the fork arm 60 is of sufficient width to engageboth the ratchet Wheel 62 and "the masking camr69. As the latter -.is ofthe greater diameter, the position of the pawl will be determined by theperiphery of the masking cam or by the depth of the notch of the maskingcam with which the pawl is engaged. When the pawl is engaged in one ofthe shallow notches 72 of the masking cam, it will be held out ofengagement with the ratchet wheel 62 and, therefore, the latter will notbe moved and no rotation will be imparted to the operating cam 24.However, when the pawl enters one-0f the \deep notches or recesses 73 ofthe masking wheel69, it will be permitted to engage the teeth of theratchet wheel 62 and, therefore, rotate this ratchet wheel and theoperating cam. As a lateral movement of the material will take place ateach movement of the operating cam and will take place only upon suchmovement, it will be seen that the number of stitches elfected in thematerial between each lateral movement of the material willlie-determined by the number of shallow notches or recesses 72 providedin the periphery of the masking car-n between successive deep notches73. A spring'member 74 secured upon 'the' side member 12 of'the frameinan upstanding position engages the teeth of the masking cam 69 andprevents rearward rotation thereof.

It will be apparent that the masking cam 69 is readily removed from theattachment so that it maybe replaced by another, and, by providing anumber of these cams having the deep and shallow notches arrangeddifferently about their peripheries, any desired decorative stitchingwithin limits may be readily effected. It will be seen that the maskingwheel 69 shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings is provided with two shallownotches 72 between successive deep notches '73. The pawl 63 will,therefore, drop :into a deep notch and effect lateral movement of thematerial at every third reciprocation of the needle bar, or at everythird stitch performed by the machine. There will, therefore, be threestitches effected between each zig-zag stitch. It may here be statedthat as shown there are twelve ratchet teeth upon the wheel 62 and,therefore, twelve deep and shallow notches upon the periphery of themasking cam 69. This number, of course, may be varied as desired. y

In Figs. 8 to it of the drawings, we have shown masking wheels havingdifferent arrangements of deep and shallow notches to effect varioustypes of decorative stitching. For example, the masking wheel 69 shownin Fig. 8 of the drawings has one shallow notch 72- between each of thedeep notches '73, and would thus effect two stitches between eachzig-zag stitch or lateral movement of the material. The masking wheel 69shown in Fig. 10 is provided with three shallow notches between eachdeep notch and, therefore, will elfect four stitches between eachzig-zag stitch or lateral movement of the cloth,while the masking Wheel69 shown in Fig. 11 is provided with five shallow notches between eachdeep notch and will, therefore, effect a lateral movement of the clothevery sixth reciprocation of the needle bar; or between every sixthstitch effected by the machine.

It is also possible to effect more stitches upon one side of a medianline than upon the other side, and a masking cam 69 which will effectsuch a result, is shown in Fig. 9. It will be apparent that while threeshallow notches 72 are provided between twosuccessive'deep notches 73only one shallow notch 72 is provided between thenext successive deepnotches, so that, as the masking wheel is rotated, it will alternatelyeffect a lateral movementof the goods every fourth stitch andsecondstitch-thus alternately effecting four stitches upon one side ofthecenter line of the stitching and two stitches upon the other side.

While we have shown and described a preferred-embodh What we claim is:

A decorative-stitch attachment for a sewing machine comprising a framemember, a lever pivoted to the frame member and having a forwardlyextending end portion, said portion being provided with laterallyextending trunnions, one upon each side thereof, a presser foot havingan upstanding lug at each side edge thereof, each lug being providedwith an upwardly facing recess within which one of said trunnions isreceived, and spring members secured to the presser foot and extendingover said trunnions to hold the latter in said recesses and releasablysecure the presser foot to the lever.

References Cited in the file of tlis patent UNITED STATES PATENTSRichter Feb. 19, 1918 Webb May 6, 1919 Karle Mar. 14, 1933 FOREIGNPATENTS Germany Dec. 4, 1929 Germany July 7, 1936

